Soaring Hearts Press, $2.99, ISBN 978-1311407702
Historical Romance, 2013
In Celia Swift’s The Lady’s Maid, Millie Jenkins knows that she should follow her employer, Lady Cynthia, to her new home now that the lady is marrying the Duke of Hawksmoor and wants Millie to be her lady’s maid.Everyone is thrilled for her, as this move would only mean a bigger salary, nicer living arrangement, and an increase in working class prestige, whatever that is worth.
Still, our heroine can’t help wishing for a more adventurous, exciting life. She’s 19, and it looks like her life is set for the next few years, even decade, and it seems so… dull. Indeed, when Lady Cynthia’s father initially wanted to drag her along to the West Indies, Millie secretly hoped that this would happen—the West Indies does sound so exotic and intriguing, after all!
Then Captain Justin Alcott comes back to town. He was her partner in crime and nemesis when she was a kid, and then he went and joined the Navy just as she was starting to find boys intriguing. Now that he’s back, perhaps she can indeed find the life that she has been dreaming of…
While this story may seem on paper like it’s cobbled together from tropes and clichés, I find myself charmed by how it actually isn’t.
For example, most authors would have the heroine and her mother be at odds because that’s the perennial favorite trope of this genre. Mrs Jenkins and Millie, however, have a pretty close and loving relationship.
“You’ve had grand dreams your entire life,” said Mrs. Jenkins. “You’ve always fancied you’d be better off than you started out, and that’s fine. It’s led you to this. You’re going to be lady’s maid to a Duchess. That’s no small thing. And it means yes, you may not be able to go haring off here there and everywhere, but it’ll give you stability, and comfort, and, if I know my Millie, a life spent with a grand Lady who is also a great friend. These things are not so bad. Perhaps it is time to put childish things aside and embrace the benefits of growing up.”
I am at first floored, and then completely won over, by how sane and nice these people are to one another. Say, Celia Swift is not a pseudonym for Carla Kelly, is it? There is something about the down to earth yet so sweet and wholesome vibe to the story that I can’t help comparing the two authors, in a nice way of course.
Unfortunately, this one works far, far better as a lovely character study of Millie than a romance. The author weaves a disgustingly sweet and wholesome story of Millie’s self introspection as well as her adorable interactions with her family and neighbors, so much so that Justin feels like an unwelcome intruder to this heartwarming tableau.
You see, while the rest of the story isn’t too clichéd, he is. He’s the stereotypical dashing handsome bloke that is so confident of his charms when it comes to women, so much so that I have come across this bloke so many times and he’s boring. Since he’s boring, he makes all his scenes with Millie so familiar and boring as well.
Since I really enjoy the rest of the story, a part of me really wishes that I can erase this boring bloke from the scenery so that Millie can go back to being that fun, relatable, and adorable creature again.
Just like with the previous story, this one has almost everything: great narrative style, lovely winsome characters, and a gentle yet detailed attention to the simple small feelings and gestures that make the story all the whole enjoyable to read… as well as an uninspired romance that feels like it is just dragging everything else down with it.
I really wish that I can give this one four oogies, I really do, but eh, boring Justin is still around so it is with great reluctance that I am giving it a three-oogie score instead.
